Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

The assistant’s eyebrows twitched from the sudden shift in the atmosphere, but she nodded her head without asking anything and left the room. A few seconds later, the half-open door opened completely and two men walked inside the room.

“Good morning, sir.”

“Good morning.”

The two boys looked at their team leader and commander and respectfully gave their greetings, which were answered by a nod from each of the two men inside the room.

“Sorry for being late.”

Reyan commented in a low voice as soon as he locked eyes with the commander. The man stared at the blondie for a few seconds before turning his gaze towards the door of the room and then looking back at Reyan again.

Understanding the meaning behind that action of the commander, Kairen hurriedly stepped in.

“Can’t he stay with us as well?”

.....

“Why would he?”

“Because I want to.”

“...”

The commander frowned his eyebrows and glanced at the team leader Dains for a second, but Kairen started to talk again before the commander could say anything.

“Are we going to talk here?”

The commander opened and closed his mouth a few times before sighing and shaking his head.

“No. Of course not.”

He then stood up from his seat.

“Follow me.”

“Yes.”

Following the commander, the two boys and one team leader left the room. The commander waved a hand to his assistant while passing through her desk, and the woman gave a nod and picked up the phone to call someone. They could hear her talk to the person on the other side of the phone about preparing something as they passed her desk and walked to the elevator.

“Will Ron be coming as well?”

Kairen asked after stepping inside the elevator. Everything was so... natural that he forgot that he was going to get interrogated for a moment and that the main character of today was his brother who was currently... in prison.

“You are really impatient, aren’t you?”

“....”

Ding

The elevator was moving down. Kairen looked down at his shoes, nervously clasped his hands, and asked another question.

“Have you interrogated him?”

“Hmm... Do you really think you are in a position to ask any questions from me?”

Kairen bit his lips after hearing the commander’s voice which was amused and annoyed at the same time. Well, he truly wasn’t in a position to talk to his commander like this and ask questions about his brother. He didn’t even know where he found the courage to ask the commander to let Reyan stick to them. Also, it was really surprising that the man let Reyan come with them so easily... Was this the power of their family that Reyan mentioned? Kairen thought it was really amazing.

Ding

The elevator stopped and four people stepped out of it one by one. The commander walked in the front while the other three followed him from behind. As they walked forward, people and agents who were on the first floor of the building all stopped and either greeted the commander or bowed and gestured to him with respect. The man just gave a nod to them and walked forward.

“Get in the car.”

‘Car?’

Kairen looked at the expensive car parked in the parking lot. It was the car that came to pick him up that day in the hospital, the big, black, and expensive car.

The car was big to fit all four of them and still have a lot of spare space. A driver also sat in the car and they started to move.

“And yes, we’ve interrogated him a few times by now.”

Kairen’s head jerked up. The commander had suddenly commented on that sentence before going silent again, ignoring Kairen’s gaze and staring out of the window. The boy then turned to look at his team leader, who also ignored him the same way as the commander. Kairen lowered his head once again.

‘They interrogated him...’

Does that mean they also tortured him? Did they use force, or did the commander use his law to make him talk? If he used his law... Then doesn’t that mean that if Ron didn’t answer then... Wouldn’t the law kill him?

‘No... They wouldn’t really kill him, would they?’

These people, this man, he wasn’t stupid enough to harm such a person, who had the potential to be a great hint in their investigations.

‘Still, that doesn’t mean that they can’t harm him...’

Taking deep breaths, Kairen did his best to calm down the rising nervousness in his chest.

‘They said that team leader Dains did all he could to support Ron... If so... He probably didn’t let them harm him, right?’

Kairen couldn’t be sure. The only thing he was sure of was that... Ron was alive, and thinking that he was ‘Alive’ and not ‘well’ made him even more scared.

The ride went smoothly, with all four occupants of the car being silent the whole time. After about 10 minutes, the car stopped in front of a building. As much as Kairen knew, they didn’t leave the headquarters, so he assumed this place was one of the side buildings of the headquarters. Once he got off the car, he could see the whole place better.

The building was not very high, maybe about 3 floors, but it was considerably vast. The whole thing was decorated with black marble and its shape looked more like a half-cut pyramid than a normal cube-shaped building.

‘I’ve never seen this place...’

This building was inside the headquarters that Kairen worked in, but he had never stumbled upon this place. Was it because this building was an off-limits area... or because it was hidden in some ways? There was also the possibility of Kairen being bling this whole time and not seeing this huge thing.

“Sir!”

A man in a black suit ran out of the building and stood in front of the commander as soon as they got oof the car.

“Did you do what I asked for?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Guide us to the room.”

“Yes, sir.”

Just like that, the four of them followed the person inside the building.

‘What is going on?’

Kairen couldn’t help but wonder what this commander wanted to do. He had heard the assistant talking about transforming someone or something and also this man said that they had prepared the things that the commander asked...

‘Does he want to torture me?’

Kairen panicked inwardly. Glancing to his sides, he made sure that team leader Dains and his mom- friend was with him. Nah, they wouldn’t let the commander harm him, right? Right?

“Huuu- cough cough!”

Kairen took a deep breath in an attempt to subdue his nervousness, though he wasn’t really successful at that.

“It’s here, sir.”

The guide stopped moving in front of a door and stepped back after gesturing at the commander. The commander nodded his head and approached the black door, reached out for the handle, and opened it.

“Go in.”

He then looked at Kairen.

“...Yes.”

Kairen obediently nodded and walked inside. The inside of the room was also big, too big to be called a ‘room’. Inside there, he could see a big table with two chairs. There were also a few other chairs in the room but they weren’t near the table but behind a barrier-like short wall, or maybe fence, that was far away from the desk and looked as if it was there to separate the room into two parts.

In addition to that, there was also a glass wall in the room that completely separated it into two. There were no doors or entrances to the other side of the wall... but there was something behind it?

‘...Ron?’

Behind the glass wall, Kairen could see the silhouette of s person sitting on a chair, face hidden under a too familiar hood, head lowered down, and body limply leaning a little bit forward in his chair as if he was asleep. The ends of the long cape were on the floor, tattered. His hands were tied to the chair from behind and his legs were also tied.

“W-what? What is this? Ron?”

Kairen ran towards the glass wall that was dividing the room in two. Looking closer, he could now see some wounds of different sizes on Aaron’s body, a few of them were still bloody.

“You look so surprised for no reason.”

The commander walked inside the room, striding towards the table at the center of the room in a relaxed manner. Yet, even the commander’s words didn’t make Kairen take his eyes off of the man on the other side of the glass wall. His eyes still lucked on his brother, Kairen quietly mumbled under his lips.

“What have you done to him...”

A set of footsteps was heard moving his way. Reyan stopped beside him and also frowned upon seeing the state that Aaron was in. He glanced at Kairen a few times before hesitantly walking away, moving towards where team leader Dains was going.

“What do you think? What would you do to a captured enemy?”

Kairen knew even without an answer that this was indeed what he feared. They had tortured his brother. It was obvious.

.....